> [....] lets look at a spider. now, a
>spider's web is not considered 'alive'. On a cellular level, life is
>defined as being neccesary to life(kinda). I feel that the two(spider
>and web) should be considered as one, with the spider as the 'prime
>animator' of the web extention. A more suitable name would probably be
>'filters'.
I believe Dennett and others use the term `extended phenotype' for exactly
what you're talking about here.
>So, from that perspective, a human can be viewed as a 'prime
>animator' also; the animator of his home. The home consumes(water,
>elec. gas), produces waste, and metabolizes. the home can be viewed as
>a single cell in the superorganism.
Or an extension of the human phenotype, in the same way that a tool extends
the reach of you arm, the home extends the protection the skin provides from
the elements.
>Ok, so every unit of the super
>organism(human) has this abstract memetic code which serve similar
>purposes...
...of extending the ablity of the gene to control its environment throught
its phenotype (the human being and his memes, in this case) and thus
increase its odds of replication. The spiders web, the beavers damn, the
man's language--all extensions of the phenotype and all made so by a genetic
predisposition toward a given pattern of behavior.
In mankind's case, the predisposition just happens to be toward the
gathering and exchanging of ideas (memes).
>So...honest opinion, have i degenerated
>into a complete lunatic?
Not yet, but you've got some real potential there. Keep working on it and
you'll join the lunatic fringe yet! :-)
-Prof. Tim